Superstitions
by xThexJadedxBugx
Summary: You know they're not real, right? They're just urban myths believed by WhoVille High teens. So why were 'they' part of the most talked-of one yet? And she and Jojo- they were just acquaintances, right? Ones with similarities, maybe even with common ground
1. Kiwi McKracken

_Disclaimer: I do not in __any shape or form hold the rights to the book "Horton Hears a Who" by Dr. Seuss, nor did I take any part of the production of the movie that was based upon the very same book. I also did not take part in any screen writing or any part of the movie's animation prosses nor played the voices of any characters in the movie production (stop saying I look like Cindy Loo Who gosh DARNIT!). I do, however own the rights to any of the characters that were; A, not in Horton Hears a Who, B, weren't in the movie version, C, haven't been seen anywhere in any Dr. Seuss book, and D, haven't been seen in any TV show, movie, christmas specials and on/in anything else that is related any of the Dr. Seuss books.  
_

_A/N: Now that this is out of our way, welcome strangers! Or Whonatics, or who__ever you are. Get it? whoever? Yeah, bad pun. Shame on me for my crudtastic humor, and word and word puns. Oh yes, and for those or you who are familiar with the fanfic "Lover's Locker" and have heard that I'm posting it up again with grammar/dialoge/story-wording edits, yeah. This is the __grammar/dialoge/story-wording-edited/will-be-finished version, if you were confused by the title. Anyways, read my pretties, read! Yes, the Wicked Witch of the West was awesome in The Wizard of Oz! Did you know that theres a whole book focused on the Witch called "Wicked" by- oh...can't you just read the chapter already?  
_

The nervous Who girl peeked through the giant green doors in front of WhoVille High. With her hands trembling and her light blue and royal blue striped legs feeling as though they were loose rubber bands, she would've done anything to get away from such a populated place. Yet she knew she had to do it anyway, and it wasn't like her Grandfather was going to have her home schooled just because she missed her original small-town home. She opened the door just enough so she could get through with her eyes darting nervously from place to place, locker to locker and person to person. For a moment, she was just standing there while trying to inhale and exhale all of this stressful anxiety from her body. The breathing didn't help any though. In fact, she really felt like darting out of the school to attempt running back to her Grandpa's old fashioned, slightly run-down jeep. He never really could drive that thing, at least without someone complaining that he should watch where he was going.

As she stood petrified with her hands wrapped tightly to her backpack's straps, another Who, a boy, noticed her at a distance from his locker. He recalled how he felt when he first came to WhoVille High, and how he felt like a nervous wreck, but he also knew that was a few months ago. He also knew that the girl was probably new to the school, since obviously he hadn't seen her before. Despite WhoVille being a pretty largely populated place, it wasn't that hard for him to mistake someone he already knew for someone else when his father basically made him memorize every single person who lived here by name. With a small shrug made by small black and gray shoulders, he continued on with taking out his English textbook from his locker, which was slightly difficult because of his small stature. He had better things to do than to get distracted by someone that he didn't even know.

When the girl finally managed to move her rubber band legs with a slow and steady walking movement, she tried focusing her attention to finding her locker. Her nerves started to calm down as she started to examine each of them.

"135, 136..." She mumbled under her breath while adjusting her purple wire framed glasses with oval lenses.

"Found it! It's 140." The new who said as she examined her brand new locker. Yet there was something about it that she found interesting, weird almost. She glanced at the other locker next to hers; the locker she had, 140, was the same exact color as 139, which they were both white. The other lockers were green, the school's color.

"Strange..." The girl said to herself. She slowly reached her shaky fingertips onto ice cold lock to locker, but before she could come to open it, she suddenly felt something shove her onto the cold ridden tile covered floor.

"DON'T OPEN IT!" The shove, along with a sudden shout, came from a Who girl with dark purple fur and matching hair in pig tails, who literally, dove right at her by pushing her back hard onto the ground as she literally leaped into the air. The other who, just like the new who, ended up onto the ground while the first Who with the purple glasses felt sandwiched between the purple haired Who and the creamy white and green striped ground.

"Man, my stomach hurts..." The purple haired Who said to herself as she got up and covered her stomach with her lower arms. She then looked at the Who with the wire framed glasses on. She had curly royal blue hair that was tied up in a half pony tail and light and royal blue fur for the exception of her torso being purple.

"Hi, I'm Kiwi." Said the purple haired Who. The Who with the glasses looked at her strangely. _Okay then..._ The blue haired Who thought.

Kiwi offered the new Who a hand and helped her up with enthusiasm. She then glanced at the two white lockers on the side of her.

"Oh yeah, I guess I didn't know you're a newbie so...Whatever you do, _don't_ go into that locker. Its cursed I tell ya!." Kiwi explained in an exaggerated panic.

"What are you talking about?" the 'newbie' Who asked as though Kiwi were bit out of her head. She never really believed in curses, or anything like for that matter.

"Well I hate to break it to you, but the the locker you're about to move into is bad news. You see that locker next to ya? If two people are assigned to both of those lockers, then all of these weird events start happening to the people using 'em." Kiwi started.

"Like...?"

"It kinda spreads out in a series of phases, ya know? First there's the friendship phase where a bunch of friendshipey stuff happens. Then there's the crush stage, where one of people using their locker likes the other person using the other locker, and I'm talking about _like_ like, not like. OR...maybe they _both_ like each other at once, but that just don't know how to tell each other." Kiwi continued with a surge of excitement.

"What's so bad about that?" The blue haired Who asked curiously. She didn't really believe that any of what she said was true, but she kept on listening.

"I haven't gotten to the worst part yet." Kiwi whispered with a singe of eeriness. "Anyway, the two people using the two lockers end up finding out that they like each other, but they don't even get into some freaky awkward silence or anythin'.  
Then they're in the date phase. After that the unfortunate lovebirds start hanging out more, like best friends gone bf/gf or something. They don't _call_ it dating though. And after they get used to hanging out, or dating, it goes totally downhill from there."

"What do you mean 'The worst happens'?" Cora asks, being a slight bit nervous. None of that _really_ could happen, right?

"It's called the bad ending stage, and it depends really. Sometimes the couple gets in a really bad fight, like screaming and shouting, sometime the guy you're dating ends up being a MAJOR cheater, sometimes the couples parents don't exactly approve of who they're dating, and then there's the really rare/really bad things that happen. You know, like you can get arrested for, but I think you know what I'm talking 'bout."

"Um, right..." The 'newbie' Who said silently. A squeamish feeling entered her stomach right after the last part of what she said, but she still mentally refused to believe what she heard.

"But don't worry!" Kiwi explained as though she never mentioned any about 'bad ending' stage. "No one has moved into the other locker, yet..."

From diagonally across the hallway, the same exact Who, the one that first noticed the new Who in the hallway, overheard the growing conversation involving Kiwi and the blue haired Who. The boy however, like everyone else at WhoVille High, knew that her real name was Phoebe. He also knew, just like everyone else, that Phoebe had the habit of changing her name at least once a week. Usually it was something that sounded like her real name, like Kiki or Mimi. She usually ended up inventing a name more than half of the time. And, just like everyone else, he knew she was a little ...eccentric when it came to school superstitions, and she often proclaims that she knew just about 'Everyone and anyone.' He assumed that maybe talking to Kiwi on the first day of school might not be a such good idea, but only because she tended to make people late for classes if she becomes a little too distracted. Yet he couldn't do anything now, the school bell had just barely rang while Kiwi was talking about the last stages of what was known as 'Lovers Lockers.' It was an old superstition that had been around for years in fact, and it even was around when hisown dad went to school. He grabbed what he needed, closed his locker and faded into a gray/black blob as he walked over to his 1st period English class.

The blue haired Who read the small yellow card in her right hand as she steadily twisted the locker's dial.

"Go to 25 three times to the left, 10, 2 times right...got it!" The blue haired Who said to herself as she attempted to open her secretly jammed locker. Kiwi shifted her feet forwards and backwards as if she had nothing else to do. When the Who girl without a name couldn't open her locker, she dialed the combination and tried opening it again, but it still didn't make a budge.

"Allow me..." Kiwi told the 'newbie' as she cracked her knuckles. She looked about the same age as the other Who but shorter; she was probably only a good two or three inches taller than the very Who boy that happened to notice Cora as she went inside the school. With full force Kiwi made a fist and punched the blue haired Who's locker. Within a brief moment the locker door swung open as though there was never a lock on the locker in the first place.

"Ow!" Kiwi winced in pain at her knuckles as they grew swollen. She then took her pencil that was behind her right ear and stuck the tip into where the locker's hinge would lock into the side. With a small wiggle of the pencil, a piece of ABC gum stuck onto it when she took it out. _ew_, the new Who thought.

Kiwi then walked casually to the other side of the hallway and scraped the ABC bubble gum off of her pencil onto a trash can. The blue haired Who noticed, just like Kiwi, that no one was in the hallway. With both Whos giving a quick glance at the clock above the janitor's office from across what was known as "Lover's Lockers," they exchanged worried glances; they both had the feeling that they were obviously late when the clock read "8:45am". The blue haired Who frantically pulled out her school planner and flipped to a page to where her single, unwrinkled schedule was, while Kiwi grabbed a crumpled piece of paper from her overly cluttered backpack and unfolded it. They both showed each others' schedules, in which they both found out that they both had English class at 8:30.

"Oh man, Ms. Wendell is gonna kill us..." Kiwi said with a serious yet scared look on face. She then shoved the crumpled schedule in her backpack, grabbed the blue haired Who's hand and darted frantically down the hallway while the unnamed Who was stumbling on her own two feet. For someone who was pretty short for her age, Kiwi's running seemed almost impossible to keep up with for the blue haired Who.

* * *

In a nearby English class, a teacher was taking attendance for her 9th grade English class.

"Jeremy Spartan?"  
"Here."  
"Gloria Peabody?"  
"Ready to learn Mrs. Wendell!" A pink Who girl said while imitating Mrs. Wendell's cheery and hyperactive voice. The English teacher shot a short glare at the student, and with a small whimper, Gloria mumbled "sorry" loud enough so that her teacher could hear.

"Jonathan-Jordan O'Malley?" The teacher said while eying the very black and gray Who featured earlier on. Without one word being uttered from his mouth, he raised his hand just enough so that Mrs. Wendell would know that he was there. She made a small sigh in disappointment as she usually did; she wished that the small Who would speak up every once in a while. Jonathan-Jordan, otherwise known as Jojo, hated it when she did that. Disappointment was his worst enemy and having a teacher disappointed in him, even for something as small as such, didn't really help any for him

"Kiwi McKracken?" Mrs. Wendell called. The teacher waited for the answer impatiently with her arms crossed. There was no answer, just silence.

"Kiwi ANSWER ME!" She called up angrily all of a sudden while finally filling the room up with noise. Still there was no answer from her.

"Ugh! Did Phoebe change her name again!?" Mrs. Wendell said with a growl. She massaged her temples from the stress that came with teaching a class with 25+ students. No one answered, but Jojo shook his head silently to himself.

"Then why isn't she answering me Jojo!?" The teacher said to his face as she marched right up to his desk in the upper right hand corner near the doorway. There were many things that Jojo didn't like about Mrs. Wendell asides from subtle hints of disappointments, and one was how she'd just snap at people, even if she didn't mean it. With Jojo's usual effortless frown on his face, and a hint of fear of the teacher in front of him, he simply pointed to the doorway.

"You mean she's not here?" Her voice started to become huffy and frustrated. He also didn't like it when she got into people's faces, but since complaining about it out loud would only make her even more upset, he simply nodded his head and tried not to show that he was giving in to her wrath.

"Then where is she!?" She was starting to grow impatient with the silent Who. It looked as if her head was going to explode any second. Out of having the feeling that he was going to get in trouble all because his vague communication, he uttered out a quiet answer.

"The hallway..." Mrs. Wendell's expression softened from finally hearing him speak.

"Now Jojo, can you please tell me specifically where she is?" she said in a surprisingly calm voice. It was almost as if she were the incredible Hulk transforming back into her original, gentle Who state. The one thing that Jojo didn't like the most about her was her constant happy to angry mood swings, but he was trying his hardest not to show it on his face. When he was about to answer another two-word answer, two Who's, the blue haired Who and Kiwi, busted through the door only for both Kiwi to trip over thin air and for the 'newbie' to be pulled down along with her.

"Ugh, not my stomach again..." Kiwi said to herself a few seconds later after the 'great' fall. Out of instinct, Mrs. Wendell turned her direction from Jojo to the two late Whos in front of her. Kiwi and the blue haired Who helped each other up in a frantic panic as the teacher marched over their direction; who knew how the their English teacher was going to react to their late arrival.

"Now Kiwi, can you please explain to me WHY YOU ARE LATE!?" The teacher shouted while completely ignoring the existence the Who standing next to Kiwi. Kiwi made a glance at the blue haired Who and quickly darted behind her as if she were a shield. The teacher, who was now looking right at the blue haired Who, started to calm down. Her face turned from a beet red to how in normally looks as her expression changed from outraged to energetically happy.

"Are you the new student!? YES! I KNEW YOU'D BE HERE! I KNEW IT, I KNEW IT!" Mrs. Wendell started to jump excitedly like a 7 year old finally arriving at Disney Land. She then dragged the new student to the front of her desk in an animated excitement.

"I am SO glad you're here! Now, I'd love it if you'd tell me a bit about your self. Like you're name, where you live, how you got here..." The teacher started to trail off with a complete list of things that the blue haired Who could say about herself. The 'newbie' wasn't sure whether or not to pay attention the Mrs. Wendell's rant or Kiwi's frightened face. Yet one thing's for sure however; she wasn't going to look at the rows of desks and teenagers, knowing that just by making one glance at them would make her start up her own nervous stage fright.

_A/N:Oooooh, suspence! unless you don't want any, which is that case, may mean you're boring -cough- anyways, it's always a nice thing to leave a comment, you know? Unless you want to flame the crud on me. In that case, I got the marshmellows if there's enough kindle for the bon fire. If not, then you can leave the usual "nice story" comment, or even leave some constructive critisisum if your brain juices are making a sweat. But really; all you need to do is click that nice little arrow thingy next to the purple box, and all of my -cough- I mean- your troubles will be solved._


	2. The stuttering Incident

"Um, Mrs. Wendell, can I...um, take a seat?" Kiwi said in a small, frightened voice while standing near the door. She didn't want her 'radioactive' teacher to get extremely mad as she usually did when someone was late. Mrs. Wendell snapped out of her verbal train of thought, and said:

"That would be great Kiwi, now would you mind actually GOING THERE!?" Her teacher replied with a tone that jumped from extremely polite to extremely mad. With a whimper, Kiwi snuck back to one of the few desks available in the middle of the room.

"Now, to start off a bit, I'd like to know your name." The blue haired Who's new teacher told her politely. Like Jojo, she wasn't really fond her teacher's constant mood swings. The blue haired Who stared at the ground as she barley whispered her name. All of the Who's sitting in their desks either hovered their hand near their ear so they could signal to her that they didn't hear her, or just complained automatically that she didn't speak loud enough. Well, maybe not everyone. Jojo was the only one that could hear her say "Cora" in a soft, faint voice; the short-statured Who had very unusual sensitive hearing. He could hear a slight swoosh from hearing Cora's left foot dragging across her right foot and back again. To most, it was just a faint noise, if they could hear it at all. Yet in his mind set, it almost made a pattern; a soft metallic beat that was hard to unravel.

"Now would you mind saying your name louder, and maybe even saying your _full name?_ I'd also like it if you'd look at your classmates." Mrs. Wendell said without running her temper short. The teacher tilted Cora's head to face the 25+ students in front of her. In a flash her whole body started to feel like meshed jello. That nervous feeling that she had first felt started to enter her system all over again. I _can't do this..._ she though in a panic. She hated being in front of big groups. In fact, even being in front of a group of five or ten could potentially cause her to be a stage fright frenzy as long as she didn't know them and that they were eying her. She rubbed her thumbs on her sweating palms as her quivering mouth started to move slightly as if attempting to say something. Blank faces waited for her to speak up as she made an attempt to say her name.

"C-c-c-c-c-Co-c-Co-" She knew that was going to happen. One long stutter right now would mean a thousand nicknames spread around the school like the plague later on. At least that's what she thought when she noticed at least three fourths of the class snickering and whispering to each other.

"C'mon, you can do it..." Mrs. Wendell said as if Cora were her 7 year old daughter attempting to ride her bicycle without her training wheel for the first time. Her teacher's 'support' wasn't helping Cora feel any more confident in talking in front of everyone. It did make her feel more nervous about it however. Jojo could obviously see that she'd rather be somewhere else, for he was one of the select few that didn't even bother talking about her ridiculously long stutter. Not because he felt pity for her, though in a way he did. But just like her, he hated being in front of a lot of people. He tried to fixate his imagination on his journal, which was filled with blueprints of unique inventions and abstract theories that most wouldn't even think of. Yet even that didn't keep the sounds of whispers and snickering from his ear; if only he could just tune his hearing away from the world around him and into his own imaginative mind.

"C-c-c-c-Coralina-S-s-s-Sp-Sparkson!" Cora's trail of sputters ended with a flimsy attempt to say her full name. The snickering turned into a burst of laughter the moment she was finished. With Jojo's ears causing his attempt to be in his own little world to fail, his head perched up to get a better look Cora; she was shaken up- her hands and legs were moving even as they stayed in the same position. It looked as though she were some frightened deer that felt cornered near a steep ledge, but it also looked as thought she was trying to bottle something up; a sense of vulnerability? That very moment could make people assume that she was merely and easy target, something that could be shot down in the matter of seconds? Jojo had to admit by now- he felt sorry for her. Yet wouldn't anyone at this point asides from the majority of the Who his age sitting at their desks? That was when Cora noticed the black and gay Who for the first time, just looking at her as she stood there. He looked somewhat, serious. Maybe even a bit sympathetic, like he was thinking that this whole thing could have been avoided if it weren't for the fact that Cora was in the perfect classroom to be the object of humiliation. He was the only one out of everyone else that wasn't laughing (even Kiwi chuckled a small bit). But it only lasted for a short moment when as his eyes suddenly became glued to his notebook. He was now back to his imaginary world of his abstract inventions and logical, yet unique thinking.

"WILL EVERYONE SHUT UP-I mean-BE QUIET!" Mrs. Wendell shouted at the top of her lungs. In an instant, everyone was dead silent. The only thing Cora could hear was her heart thumping from the inside of her chest. To Cora's relief, the laughing stopped, and she didn't have to bottle up that feeling of sudden weakness in front of everyone; for all seemed to go away after seeing the gray-black Who for the first time in her life.

"Alright, EVERYONE! Except for Jojo because he was being such a good student for not being part of this inappropriate behavior, and Cora for being the unfortunate target of such ridicule, IN DETENTION AFTER SCHOOL!" Her face again, was so red that you could use it at a fireplace. Her breath started to become heavy as steam literally came out of her head. When she calmed down, she said politely,

"Anyway, would you like to take a seat Coralina? Oh how I LOVE that name!" A small giggle erupted from her mouth as she said that with a sudden mood change after yelling at the most of the students.

"Um, sure..." Cora, also known as Coralina Sparkson said in a small voice. She immediately walked back to the only seat left, which was about two seats diagonally away from Kiwi. She stared at her feet while avoiding eye contact to everyone else while knowing that they were only keeping quiet so they wouldn't get into any more trouble, yet even then she knew that they were giving her annoyed glares and frustrated looks for being assigned into detention after school.

* * *

"Stupid, stupid, STUPID!" Cora said to herself in a harsh whisper. 1st period was over and now she had to get ready for Gym Class; oh how she [i]hated it[/i]. Yet she was more focused on her embarrassing introduction in English class. Her head was hung low to avoid people from noticing her as the 'noob' since that's what people have been calling her since the stuttering incident only one school period ago. She finally managed to organize her locker a bit, but only for some random senior Who to slam it shut and to yell out "Nub cake!" for the third time in a row. Cora groaned in frustration, then opened her locker again. She was starting to have second thoughts about this school, and a lot of them too.

"I know, Mrs. Wendell is pretty wierd..." Cora jerked her head up to the right and saw the oh-so familiar Who that introduced herself when she first entered the school. Kiwi leaned over to Cora's ear, and whispered,

"I heard that she put a senior in detention for stacking highlighters." She said as if Mrs. Wendell had committed a federal crime. Cora didn't feel like being bothered at the moment. She just wanted to be left alone to mope over something that probably shouldn't have meant the end the world, even despite not-so-great circumstances.

"I'm not talking about Mrs. Wendell..." Cora said to Kiwi with a dropped voice. With a small sigh she pinned her backpack under her locker and dug out unneeded textbooks that she could keep in her locker.

"Oh, you mean the, stuttering, incident..." Kiwi's voice grew silent with a hint of sadness, but a few small giggles escaped her mouth. But even with that small hint of laughter that floated out of her mouth like helium bubbles, she managed to sense that maybe it wasn't a good time to joke about it.

"Sorry Cora, maybe by the end of the day everyone will forget about it? You have seven more periods; I guess that's enough to redeem yourself." Kiwi said while a little unsure of herself. Cora didn't seem to believe it either since almost every other Who at her school seems to know about it; even if they weren't in her class.

"I doubt it..." Cora said with a silent voice.

"Maybe you could write to Jean."  
"Who's Jean?"  
"Oh, she's the girl who runs the advice column. Almost everyone writes to her, she's even better than that bald guy named. Dr. PhilWhovian" Kiwi stated proudly.  
"I'll pass..."  
"'Kay then, but you might need to work on the whole I-hate-speaking-in-front-of-big-crowds thing, 'cause the Whos that get the most attention here are the ones that talk A LOT. The ones that don't talk a lot however...lets just say that they're scorned by those stupid jocks and dumb cheerleaders, and then we, everyone else in the middle and below, kinda leave 'em in the dark because a few of us 'normals' think that the 'pops' are always right and then everyone else sorta follows. Even if who they're ignoring have some sort of not-so-hidden talent and stuff." Kiwi leaned over to Cora's ears again, and whispered,

" Like the mayor's son." Kiwi paused a bit, and started to whisper again.

"His singing is AMAZING! But unless he starts to speak up, and maybe if he ditches the whole emo look, then he's probably going to stay friendless for the rest of his social life." Kiwi stated. Emo? Cora thought. She notice that none of the Who's here dressed emo, but maybe that gray-black Who that didn't laugh at her during the stuttering incident would count as just that. Yet then again, why would wearing only shades rather than colors automatically put you in the category of emo? And why did Kiwi make it sound like being emo was a bad thing? She also didn't get why being a little asocial would make you an outcast either.

"Why are we whispering?" Cora asked silently.

"'FYI, his locker is diagonally across from yours, and I heard that her could hear a pin drop from across a room." Kiwi was right about his locker being across from hers. Cora noticed the Who, the one she was talking about, who apparently was the one she saw during the stuttering incident. She never would have assumed that he was the Mayor's son. He was organizing his textbooks a bit, though it didn't look like he noticed their conversation at all. She just hoped that his hearing wasn't _that_ good, for she didn't really agree with the whole 'emo' statement.

"Coralina, may I speak to you for a moment?" An authoritative voice spoke out. It was probably a teacher, but Cora turned around to make sure, and apparently she was right.


	3. First Impressions

"Mrs. Wendell told me that you might need...an escort. But only because you're new here, and I can assume you don't know where all of your classes are. Do you though?" The teacher started to say. For someone who sounded official, he sure didn't look like it in Kiwi's opinion. She knew him as that boring math teacher that was always the butt of everyone's jokes. He was somewhat dull, which definitely added to his scrawny arms and legs. Kiwi would bet anything that he was going to have some teacher that no body even liked escort her to her classes.

"Not really..." Cora had realized that she had no clue where Gymnasium was. Actually, she didn't even know where any of her classes were except for English. Maybe Kiwi could be an 'escort.'

"Alright, I'll let you decide who it is, though I'll recommend that you'll need someone who knows a lot about this school. Someone who knows just about everyone here, or at least someone who knows about most of our extracurricular activities such as sports, Drama, WhoChess..." As Cora listened to what he was saying, Kiwi was staring to grow in excitement. She knew she was perfect for the job. She knew just about everything about everyone. The 'pops,' the 'normals,' the 'quiet ones,' and she was only in her freshman year like Cora! She could name every single after school activity there was and who was in them. With every after school activity he was naming, her heart would start pumping faster and faster.

"The Junior Who Poet's Society, the school Whospaper-"

"Excuse me Mr. Wally, but I think that Cora would LOVE it if I were her escort. Like, we've become BFFs here in only one class! Haven't we?" Kiwi said while trying to act cheerily polite to impress the nerdy-looking teacher. Kiwi put her left arm around Cora as if they were "good old buddies," though Cora was a little confused.

"It's Oswald Ms. McKraken, not Wally. And even if you pronounced my name right, you still have that D- in Algebra that you might want to bring up after school."

"What!? But-but-I can't stay after school for that! I have to hand in an article for the school Whospapper!" Kiwi unwrapped her arm from around Cora's neck after hearing about the D-.

"I'm sorry Kiwi, but unless you bring up that grade to at least a C, you're not going to escort Cora, let alone write an article for the school Whospapper." Mr. Oswald told her firmly.

"Alright..." Kiwi said with disappointment. With her head hung low, she moped to her locker while mumbling hints of sailor talk and frustration.

"Anyway, would you like to choose to be your escort?" Mr. Oswald asked Cora.

"Um, you choose." Cora replied while she gazed at the dirty tiled floor. She knew that no one besides Kiwi would want to 'escort' her throughout the school day.

Mr. Oswald scanned the school hallway with magnified eyes, squinting. There were so many kids that he could just pick randomly out of nowhere. The question however was _who_ he should pick. He knew by experience that not everyone here was the cream of the crop. He also knew that there had been problems with cliques throughout the past few years. They seemed so tight in WhoVille High that not even scissors could cut them free from the irritating status quo. The only Who here however, who probably didn't even want anything to do with it, was Jojo. The only problem was that he wasn't much of a talker. It's usually either a nod, a head shake, shrug or a facial expression when it comes from him. Mr. Oswald was thinking that it maybe would be nice if Jojo met someone new for once, but would Coralina easily get along with his silent ways? Would she get annoyed or make fun of him for it like some of the other Whos do? Would they just ignore each other for the first few weeks of Cora's recent appearance? Out of inpatients, Mr. Oswald finally ended his mental battle with deciding who was going to be Cora's 'escort.'

"I'll pick....Jojo!" he exclaimed to her. From diagonally across the hallway from Cora's locker, Jojo rotated his head to Mr. Oswald's direction. _Huh?_ He thought with a somewhat confused look. He'd sworn he heard his math teacher say his name, but why was he with Cora? Jojo grabbed his planner that had his schedule tucked in one of the pages, closed and locked his locker thoroughly just in case some idiot would decide to jam his locker with a piece of ABC gum, slung his two ton dark gray backpack over his small right shoulder and curiously yet nervously walked over to the new student and teacher; he still wasn't sure if Mr. Oswald really said his name or not. Mr. Oswald turned around as if he was going to get something, or someone, but right then he saw Jojo slowly walking towards his direction with uncertainty; an exited look came across the teacher's face.

"Jojo! I was just about to send you here," Mr. Oswald started as he scooted him with his arm to face Cora who was more than three feet away from him. Jojo glanced at Cora, and then gave a very confused look at the teacher. He still didn't know the first thing about what was going on.

"Oh yes, I was just about to ask you if YOU could be...be...um, Cora's escort? You know, maybe someone who could, I don't know, show her where her classes are, maybe introduce her to other students, tell her about our extra curricular activities, and, well, other things. Like a mentor, except you're, the same, age..." The teacher's voice grew small as he ended the sentence. He seemed nervous unlike when he confronted Cora for the first time. It was almost as if he was afraid that Jojo was going to give him some sort of hard stare and refuse. Jojo was starting to think about the sudden favor. He didn't really mind doing it in his opinion, nor did it really matter to him whether or not he'd accept it. He made another quick look at Cora, but it turned out that she was doing the same thing. With a small blush and embarrassed look, she turned her head away and lowered her head. He assumed that she was probably still thinking about the stuttering incident. He did have to admit, he still felt bad for her, but was that really another reason to help her find her classes? Because of pity? Jojo made a shrug though was still a little bit unsure if he should or not.

"That's great!" Mr. Oswald explained while taking Jojo's unsure shrug as a yes. He then grabbed Jojo's planner from his hand, replaced his schedule with a new one, and handed it right back to Jojo.

"Oh, I forgot to mention that I changed you're schedule so you can be in Cora's classes, but don't worry. This will only last until she's gotten used to here. Did I mention that your locker location will have to change too? Don't worry; it's just across your current one. It's Right next to Cora's!" Mr. Oswald explained. He made a hand gesture to a white painted locker next to her Cora's. He knew about the phony superstitions of 'Lover's Locker.' There were a million other superstitions at WhoVille High, from the Bus 13 Curse to the pointless rumor that the green eggs and ham served at school was radio active. Jojo had the feeling that Mr. Oswald was going to forget about the schedule/locker change, and because more than 50% of everyone here basically believes in almost every superstition around here, he'll probably be made fun of even more than usual. Not that he'd care; it's been like that for two years at the least, and the Horton incident has only made him popular in places aside from WhoVille High.

"Jojo, I'm glad you decided to do this, I bet your father would be very proud of you." Mr. Oswald beamed a warm smile at the black and gray Who, which in return slumped his head down in a slightly sad gaze while hoping that his hint of sadness wasn't so obvious. Cora however, could see that Jojo didn't look very proud at all. It made her wonder, but her thoughts were cut off be Mr. Oswald again.

"Well, I have to go to a meeting right now, so I expect for both of you get ready for class. And remember; don't believe in any of those silly rumors. Nothing's going to happen." Mr. Oswald started to walk away to his meeting while both Whos, who've only really known each other for less than a minute, were left to watch. At the same time, they exchanged glances; Cora, with more of a nervous look, and Jojo, with a small look of curiosity.

"Um, hi..." Cora's voice said in silence. Like the stuttering incident, her legs started shaking except to a lesser extent. Jojo just raised a small hand as if to say 'hi' back. For a few minutes, they just stood there in an awkward silence, until Cora said,

"I guess we should get ready for GYM..." Jojo nodded slowly in return, and they slowly parted to their lockers with uncertainty.

In the back of Cora's mind, she was pestering herself mentally for not even getting to know her black and gray acquaintance Jojo, the one who didn't even make a chuckle when she made her embarrassing introduction in front of her whole entire English class. The one, quiet Who that was apparently the mayor's son. There was a lot she didn't know about him besides the fact that he seemed even more quiet than Cora herself. For now though, her mission was to organize her locker a little bit more before she would end up going into the dreaded Gymnasium.

"Don't tell me this is happening. This is _horrible_! He actually paired you with mayor's _son._ You've got total bad luck on your side with that locker, but I didn't know it would be _that_ bad!" A panicking horrified whispering voice shrieked in Cora's ear. Cora quickly turned her head towards the voice is sudden surprise; it was Kiwi.

"Kiwi, this whole curse does _not_ exist. He and I aren't pairing and nothing is going to happen. Cora admitted to Kiwi in a frustrated  
"What!? But I thought that you thought it was true, and- or maybe- never mind. So you didn't believe me this whole time?" Kiwi whispered again, loudly that time.

"Yeah..." Cora replied weakly. How did Kiwi just assume off the bat that she actually thought that some old superstition was true? Cora dug out a Spanish textbook from her backpack and tried fitting it into her locker.

"'Kay then, don't believe. Something's going to happen, I just know it." Kiwi whispered disappointingly. She started to walk away from Cora's locker, but after walking at least 5 feet away she darted back.

"But just try not to, you know, talk to him. Well, just talk to him when you're gotta, but other than that no socializing. At all. Nada. Zip. Zero. Nothing. Got it? And trust me; you don't wanna be known as the nice girl who all of a sudden hooks up with the emo guy." Kiwi said as a warning. She then zipped to her locker in a flash. Cora glanced at Jojo, who was finishing his locker clean-up. There was a ridiculously high stack of textbooks, notebooks, books that he had to read at school, and even a few books that he'd end up reading in his spare time like Wharry Potter right next to him. As Cora went back to organizing her locker, she hoped that he didn't hear any of what Kiwi had just said about the whole thing.

After Jojo locked his former locker for the last time, he picked up his high stack of books. He didn't really care that he had to move to another locker, but the only thing he didn't like about being Cora's 'escort' was the schedule change. It took him forever to remember that thing and he still ended up going into the wrong classes a quarter of the time. Though it's not like he can do anything about it, and he _was_ the one that accepted the offer in the first place. It was no time to mentally complain however; he needed to move into that locker, and fast.

Jojo stood in front of his new locker while attempting to edge the tips of his fingers onto the lock. The attempt wasn't successful though, and Cora could easily notice. She stared at the wobbling book stack as he tried opening that locker like 1st grader struggling to tie his shoes. She assumed that the right thing to do was to help out the black and gray who.

"Uh, can I help I help you with-" But before she could finish, Jojo jumped as if startled from the interruption, and that unfortunately caused the column of book to wobble uncontrollably. With Jojo's eyes now fixated on stack of books, he tried lessening it by trying to edge wherever the textbooks would tilt. The only problem was that it only made it worse. _This isn't good..._ Cora thought. She eyed the books along with Jojo he tried to balance the stack unsuccessfully. In seconds, books started to rain down onto the floor while Cora picked them up and even attempted to catch some. There was only a few books in both Whos hands, and the rest were showered all over the floor near their lockers. Knowing that Jojo was obviously upset with this, she came up to him to make an apology.

"I'm so sorry! I wasn't expecting this, I was going to ask you if I could help-"cause Jojo help up him index finger up to his mouth as if to say 'quiet' along with giving her an annoyed look. He then started to pick up the stranded books on his own. Cora sighed and lowered her head with a tinge of feeling bad about what she caused; she hated making people upset, even if it was an accident. She went up to his again, hoping that she would help him with his books to make up for the unneeded accident.

"Can I help you with-" But before she could finished yet another unfinished sentence, Jojo put his index finger over his mouth again, but this time his look was a little less harsh, though still little bit upset from causing his books to topple all over the area. He made a small gesture to some of the books on the floor as if saying yes. He then went back to picking up more books. Cora helped him with picking up the books, still feeling bad about what happened.

Glad that she helped out Jojo and his scattered textbooks, Cora, along with Jojo, went back to their lockers. Jojo, who had to organize his new locker from scratch, was annoyed that his locker arrangement was changed completely just because he had to be Cora's "escort." Not that he cared about the school rumors and superstitions, but was moving the location of his locker really necessary? His locker was formerly diagonally across the hallway in the first place, Mr. Oswald could've just left it as it is. So, why? To prove that the so called "Lover's Locker" rumor was really just a myth? If that's the case then he should've chosen someone who did think it was true, not some one who knew better than to follow silly school superstitions.

Glad that she helped out Jojo with picking up the books, Cora, along with Jojo, went to their suposedly cursed lockers. As Jojo was starting to put his books inside of his new locker, Cora was only left with a book in her hands. Her eyes kept switching glances between the book itself, her pure white locker and her navy blue backpack. She knew that it was important to her, but she didn't know where to put it. At first she levitated the book in front of her locker, but then decided to put it into her backpack. Yet before she could stuff it in with the rest of her binders and textbooks, her eyes darted near her locker again. Would it be safer in a flimsy old backpack or a locked metal compartment? She then hovered the book near the locker, but all of a sudden, she thought about people who'd try to break into her locker somehow, but then there was the other threat of someone stealing her backpack. But then again, she'd be bringing her sketchbook home with her anyway, right? and what if she needed to use it if she didn't have any work in study hall or something? She moved her sketch book near her backpack, only to move in near her locker again, and vise-versa in a repeated pattern.

"What are you doing...?" Startled, Cora turned her head to the side to see where the sudden voice came from. Surprisingly, the direction she turned to was where Jojo was, who was giving her a strange and curious look. Did he just say that? The black and gray Who, who was a good head or two shorter than she was, didn't even say a thing while she was near. So it wasn't a surprise that even she didn't expect Jojo to say anything while being her 'escort.' Cora looked down at her book; it was obvious that he was wondering why she kept putting it near her backpack and locker in a repeated sequence.

"Um, I'm trying to um...I'm t-trying to, uh, I'mnotsurewheretopuit." Cora's voice sped up as she forced herself to say the answer without stuttering again. Her arms started to feel like loose rubber bands again, but at least her legs felt normal for now. The black and gray Who looked at her with a confused look, for he couldn't unravel what she said at the end. Now she had a blush of embarrassment on her face, in which now Jojo could overhear newly pointless boyfriend-girlfriend jokes surrounding the silent whispering that was partially overcome by the hallway. Again, Cora attempted to say her answer.

"Um, I kind of don't know...if I should keep this in my backpack, or my locker." This time she said it with string of success. Jojo peered at the book that she held in her hands, and noticed that it was a sketch book. It triggered something in his mind; was she good at drawing? He gestured to Cora's backpack, where one of its straps was hanging from her left elbow. Her eyes glanced at the backpack as she adjusted it so she could put her book in it. With a weak smile, she said,

"Thanks," A weak smile appeared on Cora's face. With an even smaller smile, Jojo's expression changed just enough so that Cora could tell that he was saying "your welcome." The two Whos continued on with their locker organizing. Once Cora finished, she noticed that it was almost time to go to her least favorite subject; GYM. Jojo still had some work to do with his locker but now it wasn't time handle the small, flea of a problem; there were other problems to worry about for now, like how he can get his dad to get used to the fact that he doesn't want to be mayor, and how to tell the city council about his decision without making a 'WhoVille upset.'


	4. The Dreaded Locker Rooms of DOOM!

It didn't take long for the two acquaintances to find their way to the life sized Gymnasium, especially since all you needed to do was walk or run towards the direction where English was, take a right, and be confronted by two huge doors standing in the way. As the two Who's paced towards the doors, silence remained between the two. Although Cora was used to being quiet herself, she wished that there was at least some conversation that could erupt from Jojo besides his usual pattern of shrugs and sighs. Yet he was probably thinking about his own stuff, his own life. He also probably wasn't interested in talking during the moment, and she was correct; he was trying to focus on getting to GYM, even though his train of though kept him thinking about when his dad would tell the city council that he had other ideas on his own future. And who wouldn't? How would you feel if a whole entire group of authority figures were counting on you to fulfill one of the most important jobs in the whole town, whether of not you were even interested in leading in leading it or not? As he continued his calm pace to the doors, he kept trying to push it aside, yet it always stuck to him like mangled pieces of tape that he just couldn't get off of his fingers.

With in less than a minute, the unlikely duo stood right in front of two, monstrous doors, just waiting to swallow them.

"You go first." Cora offered. With a shrug, Jojo waited patently as Cora opened one of the larger-than-life door flaps. There was no point in arguing, if she wants to open it, then she can open it. He doesn't need to go with the common excuse "ladies first" all of the time. As Cora heaved one of the giant Gym doors, light started to shine through the crack. The small crack of light from between the doorways kept illuminating the end of the hallway until that small formal hint of brightness covered the small Jojo like a sturdy homemade quilt. Jojo started to walk in casually, like the enormous size of this one gymnasium was nothing to gawk about. Cora however, after she peeked out from behind one of the doors, was shocked.

"Whoa..." She said to herself. Who knew that a gymnasium could be THIS big! It had just about everything; at least five climbing ropes, a big rock wall for climbing that took at least half of the space of one of the walls, 9 basket ball hoops, there was even a small tennis court on the upper left hand corner. Cora walked away from behind one of the doors and walked near where Jojo was. It was strange though, how he didn't particularly care about the quality of the GYM. Not that he should, but still. To Jojo it was just another normal irregularity in life, just like himself, at least compared to the "average" Who.

"Gym class ain't as pretty as it looks," Cora heard suddenly. She jumped from her spot before the unexpected voice found it's owner. With one look to the left, Kiwi was standing right next to her.

"Enter the locker rooms; you'll know what I mean." She then finished off with a face that looked as if she had seen a giant wad of ABC gum under an old wooden desk.

"You really don't need to creep me out like that..." Cora commented while getting over the sudden jolt of shock. With that, the talkative Kiwi started rambling on about the horrors of "the dreaded locker rooms of DOOM!" as Cora started asking simple occasional question for Kiwi. Jojo listened for a bit, Kiwi being completely oblivious to Jojo's existence as he watched the two as if he were looking inside of a sealed window. It was how he usually felt when he saw people around him just talking up a storm, ignoring him like that time when he was paired up with two particularly popular Whos during some in school science project. With nothing to contribute to the conversation, he walked away from them and continued on to the boy's locker room, feeling, as always, that he was just a mere outsider looking inward

Cora noticed from the corner of her eye what the small Who was doing. A small sigh appeared from his half frowned mouth; he seemed to show signs of melancholy, and also seemed to feel excluded from something, but what? She was starting to have a train of thought when-

"Cora, Cora? CORA!" Kiwi's voice erased it entirely

"Huh?"

"C'mon, we've gotta head in the locker's before have to run 10 laps for Mr. Meat Head over there!" Kiwi said urgently as she pointed to a muscular Who with a whistle around his neck.

"GO GO GO! 5 more laps, don't be a wimp, just RUN!" He shouted at a scrawny looking Who that was running with all of the limited energy he had left. Cora winced at the powerful. Demanding voice, but before she could do anything else, Kiwi grabbed her hand and ran rapidly to the girl's locker room.

* * *

As Jojo predicted, the boy's locker room was a mess. Uncapped deodorant sticks everywhere, random traces of visible fur were stuck in many of the tiny puke yellow lockers and shower drains, and a few pieces of ABC gum were haphazardly inside the locker room sinks. As much as the small Who had a pet peeve for sloppiness, he still stuck to his usual activities for getting ready for yet another uneventful day of GYM. First he would have to take a shower in one of the grime covered stalls, brush his fur so he'll at least look suitable for GYM and of course, deodorant. To help complete his first task, he twisted his fingers along with the dial of his GYM locker to reach for his towel. Yet right when he was opening it, someone just HAD to blurt out a comment about Jojo and his "girlfriend."

"Dude, you've got no respect for your girl..." It was a familiar who, his name was Devon to be precise. An annoying, smooth-talking, double-timing Who that would pretend that he was a "lady's man" just so he could cover the fact that he pretty much treated girls like they were hunks of meat. Ignoring him, he attempted to make his way to the stalls, at least until Devon, as usual, got in his way again.

"Jojo, Jojo, Jojo. if you _really_ want your relationship to last, then maybe _you_ should hold the door up for _her_." Devon "suggested." As much as Devon wasn't exactly on the scrawny side, the most he'd ever do to Jojo would be to say something embarrassing to him publicly in front of his face. Actually, that's probably the most that anyone would do to him if not less. In Whoville High, bullying tends to be more subtle to an extent, so it's not the common thing to see someone being stuffed into a locker even. Annoyed, Jojo continued on to the stalls, knowing that this was only the beginning to the annoying boyfriend-girlfriend comments.

* * *

"Behold, the locker room HORROR!" Kiwi said loudly at the very moment they entered the girl's locker room. The other girls that were opening their GYM lockers suddenly looked at the two Whos strangely, ceasing any conversation that was spiraling around the room. "Um, never mind." Kiwi squeaked silently to the other girls before they could continue their ongoing chatting.

"It's not that bad," Cora commented. Sure, it was a little...grimy, but still. It wasn't as "horrible" as Kiwi described it.

"Well that's because we've just entered. Wait until we get to the more finer details." Kiwi told her while leaving a few questions in her mind. "So, which one is it?"

"Which one's what?" Cora asked with confusion.

"The locker you're taking! Which locker were you givin'?

"Oh! #23, letter P."

"Coming right up!"

Kiwi grabbed a hold of Cora's arm again while leading her to the right locker. When the two got there with ease, Kiwi gestured to Cora's locker.

"Right here, you need help with opening it?" Kiwi asked.

"Don't think so." Cora said, just looking at it's yellow paleness.

"You sure? Cause the seniors jam the empty ones all the time."

"Um, I'll just get you if I need help."

"You really need to stop saying 'um,'" Kiwi critiqued.

"Um, okay- I mean- alright, um- oops! Never mind..." Cora told her while trying unsuccessfully to _not_ saying 'um'.

"Eh, you'll stop saying it eventually. But if ya need me, just find locker #32, letter C." With that, Kiwi left with a small salute as she quested to find her locker. With luck, Cora managed to open up her locker without any help, but only to find that a few living creatures were crawling in it.

"Mold?" Cora blurted curiously yet grossed out. It looked as if it hadn't been cleaned out for years. _I'm not using that..._ she thought. She zipped open her backpack and pulled out a currently clean towel. Then she carefully closed the mold covered locker with a hint of disgust and headed to one of the unused stalls, yet only to realize that someone forgot to clean the drain of their fur.

"If you think that's disgusting, then you should hear the rumors about how bad the boys locker room is." Kiwi said yet again while suddenly standing next to the blue Who.

"Yeah, people should clean up a bit..." Cora said slowly while she was unsure if the locker rooms were even close to sanitary. She picked up the soggy piece of hair, placed in the nearest trash can and headed into the stall. _This is ridiculous... _the Who girl though as she noticed the hint of grime that covered the stall.

* * *

While trailing behind the annoying Devon, Jojo ended up being the last boy to exit the locker room. Not that he really cared, he didn't really mind another five more laps from Mr. Heron, or otherwise known as "Mr. Meat Head". Jojo's fur, just like everyone else that had finished getting ready, was combed to look as if hr were wearing furry GYM shorts and a baggy T-shirt. He headed out to where a few other boys were taking their laps and started running.

"Stop your running and get in a line! We're five minutes late and I DON'T want to waste time!" Mr. Heron shouted at everyone who was running their laps. Some of the Whos that had already finished them were lining up in a row near the right side of the GYM. With a shrug, he joined in with the other Whos, expecting another painful dodge ball game. By then, some of the Who girls were hurrying out of the girls locker room including Kiwi and Cora. Rather than Kiwi's unusually big pig tails and Cora's half pony, their hair were tied up in pony tails. The two Whos stood next to Jojo in the row of kids.

"ALRIGHT YOU LITTLE MIDGETS! I'm expecting all of you to take part in here. You're not the only ones who'd rather not spend time with a bunch of whiny little kids. We're playing a simple game of dodge ball, but this time, their will be a little twist..." The teacher started. All of a sudden, two massive objects that looked like giant colored mechanical cannons hauled in by what looked like two adult Whos in hugely proportioned bicycles going through the larger-than-life GYM doors.

"THOSE are dodge ball canons. They serve as a more, _recreational_ element to the usual dodge ball game." The two machines were each attached to a small conveyor belt where the dodge balls would be put in. The conveyor belt was also connected to a dodge ball sized hole in the bottom of the cannon. Jojo assumed that the conveyor somehow brought the dodge balls near the dodge ball opening and shot it out of the canon. But how? Maybe the conveyor belt brought the dodge ball to a slot with a spring behind it, and that would shoot it up into the air. However the contraption worked, it was pretty interesting to Jojo even though he wasn't saying his "oohs" and "awes" like everyone else was. Who invented this? What other inventions did this Who make? Whoever is was, he must be some kind of recreational genius.

"JOJO! You man the blue one while, uh..."The Gym teacher interrupted his train of thought while having no clue what so ever to Cora's name.

"Cora," She finished with a small nervous voice.

"Right! Cora, Jojo, man the dodge ball cannons, NOW!" His voice demanded. Cora raced up to the purple colored dodge ball since the GYM teacher had already said that Jojo was to manning the blue one. It looked like the teams were separated between girl and boy Whos. Cora climbed up the machine to where the controls were. _But I don't even no how to use this,_ Cora though in a panic. As she got up into a hard cushioned seat, she scanned the cannon to see if there was some sort of instruction manual that went with the large machine. With her eyes giving her no sign whatsoever to it could be, she searched to controls and her seat to find it. _C'mon, I know it's here somewhere..._ She thought. Yet even her attempts to find any sign of a white piece of paper couldn't help her any. _C'mon, you have to be here!_ She though frantically as she was hoping to find the instructions before the game started.

On the other side of the GYM, Jojo knew exactly how to control the amazing machine in seconds. It looked as easy as remembering his own first name. Although the distance between the two seemed far away in the large spaced Gymnasium, he could somehow see that Cora was...nervous, or panicky. Did she understand the directions? Was she thinking that manning the dodge ball cannon was too much? Who knew? Little did Jojo know, Cora was having a bit of a struggle with finding her instructions.

"On the count of three, I want at least HALF of you to put the dodge balls onto the conveyor belt. Alright!?" Mr. Heron shouted while everyone was separated into their two teams. In Cora's mind, this was the last thing that she wanted to happen. She'd rather have her cannon be struck by lighting and then stop working than yet again make an idiot out of herself just because she couldn't find the manual that went with strange new device. She was already considered a noob at Whoville High, and didn't want another slice of bad karma to fit in her already tainted Whoville High reputation.


End file.
